"It's a PIKACHU!!!": Pokemon GO players have hilarious reactions to Niantic's teaser post for upcoming Gen VIII Pokemon

Pokemon GO's developers at Niantic recently hinted at the arrival of a certain Generation VIII Pokemon, but plenty of fans were prepared with jokes. While the Pokemon being alluded to is clearly the Dragon/Ghost-type species Dreepy, fans joked on the GO subreddit, including threads like those posted by u/S_newgameplay where the player u/Mediocre_Cheetah9083 remarked "It's a PIKACHU!!!":

The original Pokemon GO Reddit post that led to fans joking about which Pokemon would arrive next (Image via u/S_newgameplay/Reddit)

Comment byu/s_newgameplay from discussion inpokemongo

Several Pokemon GO players continued joking that the "mystery" Pokemon would be another costumed Pikachu, while others posited it would be a Blue-Eyes White Dragon from the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, a B-2 Spirit Bomber aircraft, a Bidoof, or Bill Cipher from the animated series Gravity Falls. All the while, some players seemed to take the post seriously and assume (correctly) that the Pokemon was Dreepy.

Pokemon GO fans answered the original Dreepy post in plenty of different ways (Image via Reddit)

The post relates back to one of the (arguably) oldest jokes in the Pokemon fandom with the "Who's That Pokemon?" mini-quiz found in the original run of the Pokemon anime. Ever since the anime debuted in the 90s, fans have been incorrectly guessing the "mystery Pokemon" of the day as a joke, and it appears that this tradition is still alive among the Pokemon GO fandom as well.

"Who's That Pokemon?" is alive and well within the GO fandom (Image via Reddit)

This particular joke aside, it's heartening to see fans still making jokes surrounding posts released by Niantic. Given GO's litany of controversies just in 2024, seeing trainers have a laugh is a plus, especially when it hearkens back to one of the oldest jokes in the Pokemon community.

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Jokes aside, Dreepy's arrival in Pokemon GO should be a win for the community

Dreepy, as it appears in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Pokedex (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Setting aside the classic "Who's That Pokemon?" jokes for a moment, the addition of Dreepy should be a welcome one among GO fans. While this creature on its own isn't all that impressive, it's what it ultimately becomes that could really be interesting in GO's meta. Dreepy's final evolution is Dragapult, a pseudo-legendary species that has popped up more than once in the core series meta.

While it's unclear as to what Dragapult's stats and learnable moves will be in Niantic's mobile title thus far, there's plenty of potential for this pseudo-legendary Pokemon to shake up the PvE or PvP meta. Of course, it's just as likely that Dragapult might not pan out as expected, but the only way to find out is to await Dreepy's arrival with its evolutions on September 3, 2024.